Instagram marketing is evolving into more complicated strategies as brands and advertisers look beyond simple metrics like follower count.

A couple of years ago, marketers looked at the number of followers and the number of posts produced by an influencer to decide upon payment rates and influencer marketing deals. Now those times are gone as brands are looking for more transparent and efficient ways to track the performance of their advertising with Instagram influencers.

Nano influencers – Instagrammers with less than 10,000 followers – are the main ones to benefit from the shift as brands evaluate a broader range of metrics and don’t get fixated on the number of subscribers.

Now companies and agencies engaged in Instagram marketing tend to factor in a variety of metrics. They consider a level of effort an influencer put into sponsored posts, the quality of content along with traditional performance figures like engagement rates and the number of sales driven by the post.

While these strategies have been common for smaller companies engaged in Instagram influencer marketing for many years, some big consumer brands have reconsidered their approach only recently. The process is gaining traction slowly; however, the trend is here to stay.

Instagram Stories are gaining popularity among brands and advertisers, according to Vickie Segar, founder of influencer agency Village Marketing, cited by Digiday. First, this type of content is more trackable than traditional posts in the feed, second, it is more flexible as it allows to put links and stickers in.

The exact marketing strategies may depend on the specific needs of a company or an agency. But overall the trend is clear: follower count and a number of posts are losing their negotiating power for influencers. They have to create engagement and show that their content performs well for an advertiser.